Kubesense

Add Field

The Add Field rule attaches a new key-value field to logs, optionally conditioned on a regex match. Use it to enrich logs with context that the application doesn't include natively.

When to Use

  • You want to tag logs with team ownership, environment labels, or service tiers.
  • Logs from a workload are missing a field you need for filtering or routing.
  • You want to flag logs matching certain patterns (e.g., add alert=true to error logs).
  • You need to add routing metadata for downstream consumers or alert rules.

Fields

FieldRequiredDescription
NameYesRule identifier
Source FieldNoThe field to evaluate for the condition. If empty, the entire log body is used
Regular ExpressionNoOptional condition — only logs matching this pattern get the new field. Leave empty to add the field to all matching logs
New FieldYesThe name of the field to add
ValueYesThe value to assign to the new field

How It Works

  1. If a Regular Expression is provided, the rule checks the source field (or full log body) for a match.
  2. If the regex matches (or if no regex is provided), the new field is added to the log with the specified value.
  3. If the regex doesn't match, the log passes through without the new field.

Examples

Tag Logs by Team

  • Source Field: (empty — match entire log body)
  • Regular Expression: payment|checkout|billing|stripe
  • New Field: team
  • Value: payments-team

Result: All logs mentioning payment-related terms are tagged with team=payments-team, making it easy to filter by team ownership.

Add Environment Label

  • Regular Expression: (empty — apply to all logs)
  • New Field: environment
  • Value: production

Result: All logs from the matched workloads get environment=production. Useful when combined with a Rule Matcher targeting a specific namespace like prod/*.

Flag Error Logs for Alerting

  • Source Field: severity
  • Regular Expression: ERROR|CRITICAL|FATAL
  • New Field: requires_attention
  • Value: true

Result: Error-level logs are tagged with requires_attention=true, which can be used to trigger alert rules or filter dashboards.

Add Service Tier

  • Regular Expression: (empty)
  • New Field: tier
  • Value: tier-1

Combined with a Rule Matcher like prod/api-gateway/*, this tags all API gateway logs as tier-1 for prioritized monitoring.

Tips

  • When no regex is specified, the field is added to every log matching the pipeline's Rule Matcher. Use this for blanket enrichment like environment or team tags.
  • The added field is fully indexed and can be used in searches, filters, dashboards, and alert conditions.
  • You can add multiple Add Field rules in the same pipeline to attach several metadata fields at once.